530 
MERGE TO GYRENE. 
rested, any approach to the arena, or other lower parts of the amphi- 
theatre, must have been by descents, right and left to them, from the 
terrace (or platform) which surrounds the upper range of seats, or by 
the staircases leading from it to the lower ranges, of which decided 
vestiges are still remaining. The arena seems to have been about a 
hundred English feet in diameter, and the seats to have occupied a 
space of about eighty feet in depth ; if we reckon the level space (or 
platform) inclosing the amphitheatre at twenty, the whole building 
will have stood upon three hundred feet of ground. It conld not be 
ascertained whether any subterranean chambers existed communi- 
cating with the arena, as this part is incumbered with the ruins of 
the fallen seats, and we had neither time nor means to excavate in 
search of them ; we should rather conclude that there were not ; for 
on the north side, where no seats are remaining, (all this portion 
of the building having fallen down the cliff,) the substructure is 
very apparent, and no arrangement appears to have been made for 
vaults. There are remains of a Doric colonnade along the edge of 
the cliff, forming the north side of one of the spaces walled in to the 
eastward of the amphitheatre, the capitals of which are beautifully 
formed, exhibiting all the sharpness and taste peculiar to the early 
manner of executing the order. Both these inclosures appear to 
have been appropriated to the amphitheatre,^ — perhaps as public walks 
for the use of the audience ; but it is difficult to say how they were 
approached, either from the east or from the west ; and the two 
other sides are inaccessible, in consequence of the abrupt 
descent of the cliff to the northward, and the rise of the 
